A Boy from Barnhart

Book excerpt: Everyone has a story to tell, a legacy to leave to both living family and future generations. In his memoir, A Boy from Barnhart: Times Remembered, author Herb Taylor shares his life story and legacy, from his coming of age on large ranches and small towns in West Texas to his subsequent career as a professional army officer. Taylor writes of life and its realities during the drought years of the 1950s. He chronicles the people, places, ideas, and incidents he encountered during a twenty-eight year army career, as well as his struggle with a lifelong alcohol addiction and the death of his childhood sweetheart after a thirty-five year marriage. He writes of the good times and the not so good, the ordinary and the unusual, in a casual, personal, and informative way that captures the times and his life experiences. Equal parts genealogy, history, travelogue, and memoir, Taylors memories are the emotional account of a life well-lived, as well as an interesting and intricate record of times gone by.